The paper will look at the Neoplatonic reception of the “Timaeus”, along with other Platonic conceptions about the nature of the sensible, and how this relates to the Platonic demand for stable objects of thought. However, I will argue, because everything other than the first principle – both the content of thought and the constitution of the sensible – is composed of the Dyad of limit and unlimited, it renders the human soul incapable of having stable object, apart from the One. A science of nature is, in principle, impossible. Further, I will show that Proclus was trying to overcome precisely the problem of the One’s separation from multiplicity and to ground a science in that principle, but could not achieve this end.

Demographic change in a globalized world raises not only social and economic issues but also ethical problems within the medical system of aging societies. Medical care for elderly people cannot be conceptualized and organized without considering a cultural understanding of aging and the economic and social circumstances of a given society. In this regard this conference will focus on ethical, historical and epidemiological perspectives of aging in a global world. Further subjects of the conference are the beginning of life and sexually transmitted diseases, which will also be discussed from an interdisciplinary perspective.
This conference will focus on selected cases from Turkey, Germany, and other countries closely connected by substantial migration processes, as they had been earlier through medical scientific exchanges and common clinical practice. After the well received first round held in Germany (Mainz) in 2010, the aim of the Istanbul conference is to establish a discussion platform for different ethical considerations among historically connected countries.

On 11 September 2012, the first ever event will be held at the new Besikcizade Medical Humanities Center (Beşikçizade Tıp ve İnsani Bilimler Merkezi, BETİM), launched by hayatvakfı (http://www.hayatvakfi.org.tr/ ).

Prof. Dr. Werner Kümmel from Mainz University Medical Center (Germany) will lead a one-day workshop on the topic ‘Medicine and National Socialism’ from 9.15am to 3.30pm.

Workshop languages are Turkish and German (with simultaneous translation provided).

Ulric Neisser, an American psychologist and one of the founders of cognitive psychology died last month. Neisser’s life, including his major contributions to the revolution of the study of the human cognition is well documented; see for instance, the NY Times obituary and the Mind Hacks blog. My intention is not to replicate what has appeared elsewhere but to add to it by focusing on Neisser’s later work in ecological psychology, more specifically, his interdisciplinary research on the self which has guided the content and methodology of my own work. I take this as an opportunity to remember him, with the added hope of sparking the interest of those less familiar with his later work.

Behaviourism dominated the scientific study of the mind in the first half of the 20th century. Behaviourists declared that psychology should not attempt to address internal mental events and mechanisms but should focus on the observable markers of cognition, such as stimuli, responses, and the consequences of these responses. Despite its contribution to the development of rigorous experimental techniques and to the domain of learning, behaviourism was limited in explaining many interesting dimensions of human cognition, such as the development of language.